In the computer industry, it is often necessary to certify or otherwise verify or test specific hardware for compatibility with specific software. For example, a provider of an operating system or other software my wish to indicate to customers or would-be customers what particular models of one or more manufacturer's computer equipment can run a particular version of the software. Testing for compatibility often involves running a suite of tests on the computer equipment. If the computer equipment can be configured many different ways, as is typical with most personal computers, tests can be run against various system configurations.
The variety of configuration options of some types of computing equipment has ballooned due to wide variation in chipsets, peripheral devices, storage devices, and adapters available for use with standard interfaces. Thus, configurations tested do not always account for all of the hardware options. More configurations can be tested, but keeping track of all the various options that are or can be used is sometimes a challenge. In addition, there is often a desire on the behalf of both hardware vendors and software suppliers to limit the testing in some way to gain efficiency, while still maintaining the ability to be reasonably certain as to what configurations will and will not work with a specific software product.